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Despite the continued challenges resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, the annuity industry rebounded strongly — with the first quarter of 2022 seeing total U.S. annuity sales increase 4% to $63.3 billion. LIMRA expects this momentum to continue through the next several years.

“The outlook for rising interest rates and fairly level equity markets will have investors continuing to look for the balance between protection, growth, and guaranteed income, creating a strong potential for individual annuity sales to break the all-time record levels of sales experienced in 2008,” says Todd Giesing, assistant vice president, LIMRA Annuity Research.

With the onset of the pandemic, workers became increasingly concerned about their financial security and emotional and physical well-being. According to a new study by LIMRA and EY, there is a growing employee appreciation for non-medical benefits such as paid family medical leave, life insurance, disability insurance, and wellness programs. The study predicts this increased demand, combined with the fierce competition for top talent, will drive non-medical workplace benefits to grow 20% by 2026.

COVID-19 raised consumers’ awareness about the importance of life insurance. According to LIMRA research, half of U.S. workers believe their life insurance benefit is more important due to COVID-19. To ensure every worker who has access to life insurance at their workplace opts in, our industry needs to expand efforts to educate employers about the value their workers place on life insurance and encourage them to highlight this important benefit during their next open enrollment.

After strong results in 2019, the total new premium for individual life combination products decreased 23% to $3.7 billion in 2020, according to LIMRA’s 2020 U.S. Individual Life Combination Products Annual Review. There were approximately 421,000 policies sold in 2020, down 7% compared with 2019 results.

Life combination products provide life insurance coverage with long-term care or chronic illness coverage, an attractive value proposition to consumers, according to LIMRA consumer research.

Employee benefits brokers have served as a long-standing bridge between carriers and their clients. Many employers value working with a trusted benefits professional to help navigate a daunting array of oftentimes similar options. While well established, the broker-employer relationship is evolving at a rapid pace.

LIMRA recently partnered with EY to better understand the future direction of the workplace benefits industry. The research explored the perspectives of key stakeholders in this segment (i.e., employers, employees, brokers, and technology providers) and found that while brokers are still highly regarded, their role is rapidly shifting from a sales-focused, transactional business model toward one that is more consultative in nature. We expect this shift to accelerate over the next five years as several environmental trends driving this change continue to unfold.

With all of the health issues brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, LIMRA research shows employees are placing greater importance on the benefits offered by their employers, and are more closely examining their benefit needs.

In 2020, LIMRA asked full-time employees with insurance benefits what changes they made to their benefits package during their 2020 open enrollment period. The results highlight the immediate short-term impact of the pandemic.

Healthcare costs have been on the rise over the past decade. In response, some employers have scaled back on their health insurance offerings, at times leaving gaps in coverage. As a result, the voluntary benefits market, where employees pay the premiums, has become more popular among employers.

These voluntary benefits programs, however, have underlying costs to employers, including those related to implementation and administration. Digital tools can help employers reduce these costs by simplifying operations and improving efficiency.

As the pandemic spread, images of nursing homes and assisted care facilities flooded the media. The sick and elderly were particularly vulnerable to this deadly virus and so many families were cut off from their parents and grandparents in the hopes of protecting them from exposure to COVID-19.

With this in mind, LIMRA surveyed more than 2,000 Americans to determine if the pandemic has shifted their thoughts about long-term care and insurance.

The general perception has been that the pandemic would radically increase employees’ appreciation of benefits and possibly increase their need for certain benefits, but how benefits may evolve based on these changes remains unclear.

With the pandemic shaking the country for more than 12 months now, employee benefits experts are trying to gain insights into which actions employees will take as a result of COVID-19 and whether carriers will see a positive impact on participation rates. The general perception has been that the pandemic would radically increase employees’ appreciation of benefits and possibly increase their need for certain benefits, but how benefits may evolve based on these changes remains unclear.

Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, unpaid caregivers struggled with the demands of work and saving for the future. The pandemic brought on additional work/life disruptions with stay-at-home orders, school closures, and reduced ability to outsource caregiving. The challenges also affect workers’ future retirement security since retirement income is often dependent on one’s ability to work and, through that work, accumulate savings.

A new Secure Retirement Institute^® (SRI^®) study, Staying the Course: Navigating Unpaid Caregiving Obstacles to Retirement Security, explored the impact of caregiving on workers’ retirement savings, as well as the actions and employer benefits that may help caregivers plan for a secure retirement.